Robert Raymond, 1st Baron Raymond PC (1673–1733) was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 judge.

Robert Raymond was the son of the judge Thomas Raymond

Thomas Raymond

Sir Thomas Raymond or Rayment was a British judge. Born to Robert Raymond, he was educated at a school in Bishop's Stortford before matriculating to Christ's College, Cambridge on 5 April 1643. On 6 February 1645 he joined Gray's Inn, being called to the Bar there on 11 February 1651...

. He was educated at Eton

Eton College

Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....

 and Christ's College, Cambridge

Christ's College, Cambridge

Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.With a reputation for high academic standards, Christ's College averaged top place in the Tompkins Table from 1980-2000 . In 2011, Christ's was placed sixth.-College history:...

. Said to have been admitted to Gray's Inn

Gray's Inn

The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...

 aged nine, he became a barrister in 1697 and was admitted at Lincoln's Inn

Lincoln's Inn

The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. Although Lincoln's Inn is able to trace its official records beyond...

 in 1710. In 1725 he was invested as Privy Counsellor.

Raymond, a Tory

Tory

Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...

, was appointed as Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench on March 2, 1725 until his death. In the trial of Deist

Deism

Deism in religious philosophy is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that the universe is the product of an all-powerful creator. According to deists, the creator does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the...

 Thomas Woolston

Thomas Woolston

Thomas Woolston was an English theologian. Although he was often classed as a deist, his biographer William H...

 in 1729 Raymond said:

Christianity in general is Parcel of the Common Law of England, and therefore to be protected by it; now whatever strikes at the Root of Christianity, tends manifestly to a Dissolution of the Civil Government...so that to say, an Attempt to subvert the establish'd Religion is not punishable by those Laws upon which it is establish'd, is an Absurdity.

In the House of Lords he tried to stop the House of Commons abandoning Law French

Law French

Law French is an archaic language originally based on Old Norman and Anglo-Norman, but increasingly influenced by Parisian French and, later, English. It was used in the law courts of England, beginning with the Norman Conquest by William the Conqueror...

 and replacing it with English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

. To Raymond, ending the traditional language might lead to other 'modernisations' such as Welsh

Welsh language

Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

 for courts in Wales. However his opposition failed and in 1733 the courts were anglicised.

In 1720 he built for himself a country house and estate at Langleybury

Langleybury

Langleybury was a country house and estate in Hertfordshire, England situated 2 miles north of the town of Watford on a low hill above the valley of the River Gade.-Raymond 1711-1756:...

 2 miles north of Watford

Watford

Watford is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, situated northwest of central London and within the bounds of the M25 motorway. The borough is separated from Greater London to the south by the urbanised parish of Watford Rural in the Three Rivers District.Watford was created as an urban...

 in Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

. His monogram and his cipher, a griffin in a crown, can still be seen on the exterior of the building.